Do It the Con Way
by goldensphere
Summary: Max's secret identity


**Hi everyone! Here's another one-shot. Enjoy reading!**

 **I do not own Pokémon in any way!**

* * *

Max sat there intensely watching an ultimate Pokémon battle on the television. He studied the moves of which Pokémon used what, to which was most effective. He thought of how unfair it was that he was not allowed to have Pokémon yet when his sister could. He was just as smart. He knew all about Pokémon, and he felt that he would make a great trainer, probably the best in the world, but there were still three whole years to go until he was old enough.

The boy got up and turned off the television.

"It's no fair," he said out loud.

But nobody heard him. His sister had gone somewhere, who knows where, and said that she didn't want Max to come for just this time. It wasn't that she didn't like him or something, it was just an older sister thing. His father was off at the gym and his mother was busy in the kitchen. So the boy was left alone with nothing to do but to, well, find something to do. He went up to his room and plopped onto his bed.

"I wish I could grow up more quickly and have Pokémon," he said to himself. "The coolest Pokémon that would make everyone say 'wow. Max is the coolest and strongest guy in the world! I wanna be just like him!' But instead, I just got stuck being the baby of the family."

He stood up and balled his fist. "Maybe I'll have a Treeko, or a Mudkip, or a Torchic. Or maybe something stronger and cooler. Like a legendary! And then I'll be the best of trainers and maybe I'll even be a gym leader and take over dad's gym! Then I'll be the unbeatable"— he flashed his glasses— "Max."

The boy then plopped down to the floor.

"Quit dreaming, Max," he said to himself. "You still have a long way to go."

The boy sighed and flipped open a book about different legendaries he had found in his somewhat messy room.

"Cool! A Dialga!" Max exclaimed looking at a picture on one of the pages. "That's all the way in the Sinnoh region! I wish I could go there, then maybe I'll see Dialga and maybe Palkia and Giratina too!"

He tiredly shoved his hands into his pockets.

"Huh? What's this?"

Max pulled out an unknown device he had found in his pocket. It had two screens and game buttons like some type of a game-player.

"Oh yeah!" he suddenly remembered.

A few days ago, Ash had left for his journey to Sinnoh, and when May and Max were heading back home, Max had found an unknown object in the grass. It didn't look like anyone wanted it and May wasn't looking, so he had secretly pocketed it. No big deal, right?

Max pressed some random buttons. Nothing happened. But when he found the on button and pressed it, the screen lit up.

"Hey! This thing still works!"

Pretty soon, an animated figure was visible on the top screen.

"That looks like Professor Rowan, like the one I've see on T.V. and read about in books," Max said, his face lighting with excitement.

Soon, words started to appear on the screen and music played in the background. There was a long explanation of the world of Pokémon; stuff Max already knew. Then finally, there was a question.

'Are you a boy or a girl?' was written on the screen.

"Boy, of course," said Max and clicked 'boy'.

The next question appeared. 'What is your name?' and a letters keyboard appeared.

Max hesitated. Well it only a game, right? The information was probably going nowhere.

'M-a-x.' the boy typed in. The third question appeared.

'Are you ready to begin your journey?'

Max blinked.

 _What journey?_ he thought.

'Yes'. he clicked, wondering what would happen next in the game. The screen went black.

 _Huh? Is it broken?_ Max thought, surprised. He blinked again, but this time, he felt a sudden whoosh of air.

When he opened his eyes, he found himself in a completely different room. Like a Pokémon centre room, Max recognized, Like the ones he had stayed in with his sister back when they used to travel with Ash. He noticed that the window was open, maybe that's why he felt slightly chilly. The boy put the device back in his pants pocket, and stood up. He felt much taller than he was a few seconds ago! Maybe he _was_ taller.

 _But how so quickly?_ he wondered. Max walked over to the window and saw that he was in an unfamiliar place. _Where am I? How did I get here? Is it because of the device?_

He had just closed the window and started heading towards the bed when he caught sight of himself in the mirror.

"What the—" Max froze. He looked again. That didn't look like him, or did it?

He went to get a closer look. It _did_ look like him, except much older. The hair-style and glasses were different, and the hair had a slight tinge of a green-ish colour to it. Otherwise, that just looked like an older him.

"Hey, I'm older!" he exclaimed in surprise, his voice sounding different. Well of course, he couldn't expect his voice to always stay the same. Not only did he look older and have a different voice, he also felt older. His mind seemed to have more knowledge, and he felt more mature.

 _Did I travel time?_ he thought. _Wait, I look old enough to have Pokémon! Does that mean..._

The boy was not wearing the same shirt he was a minute ago, but it was still a green t-shirt and he wore a sleeve-less darker green jacket on top now. He reached his hand into the jacket pocket and pulled out six pokéballs.

"Cool," he said to himself, but for some reason, he didn't feel the excitement he thought he would.

He threw all six together and yelled, "Come out! Everybody!" because he didn't know which Pokémon he had. Out came a Slowking, an Aggron, a Heracross, a Shuckle, a Venonat, and a Dusknoir.

"I guess they're not _too_ bad," said Max, then returned all of them back to their pokéballs again and put the pokéballs back into his pocket. He saw a green backpack propped up on the bed. Just then, he had an idea.

"Hey, if I'm old enough to be on a journey on my own, why not explore a bit before I think of how to get back home?" he thought out loud. It looked around midday so Max grabbed his backpack and headed out the door.

"Let's go have some fun," he muttered to himself, flashing his glasses. "Hehehehe."

* * *

Just as he was finished signing out of the Pokémon centre, Max saw a familiar person walk out of another room.

"Yikes!" Max whispered to himself, but before he could hide, Ash walked up to him.  
"Hey, you look familiar," Ash said to him, "Have we met somewhere?"

"Uh," Max stood there.

 _Wait, he doesn't know who I am!_ he suddenly remembered. _He doesn't recognize me. I'm much older!_

"Um, I don't think so," he replied to Ash. He noticed Brock walk up beside him, followed by an unfamiliar girl with midnight-blue hair.

"In that case," said Brock. "What's your name?"

"Uh." Now he was stumped. He couldn't tell them his _real_ name, now could he? "Con..." he said the first word that came into his mind. "I-I mean, Conway's the name!" he quickly blurted out, making the name on the spot. He flashed his glasses for special effects.

"Hi Conway! I'm Ash, from Pallet Town!" exclaimed Ash.

"And I'm Brock," said Brock. "Nice to meet you."

 _I know. I know._

"And my name is Dawn!" introduced the blue-haired girl.

"Right. Uh I have to go now," said 'Conway'. "Nice meeting you all!" he added to make him sound more normal. The boy quickly hid behind a nearby wall.

"Okay. Change of plans," the boy said to himself. "Now how do I get back home?"

He pulled the device out of his pocket. The screen now had a miniature animated figure of him in an animated Pokémon centre. He looked at the game buttons and randomly clicked x. A set of icons appeared. One icon was labeled 'Pokémon', the other 'Bag', the third 'Save', the fourth 'Trainer's ID', the fifth 'Pokédex', and the sixth 'Options'. He clicked the 'options' button but it was only stuff like music settings, etc. The rest seemed useless.

 _How will I get back home?_ Max was starting to feel a bit scared now. Sure, being a big kid with Pokémon and all was pretty cool, but he wanted to get back home. Hope was at loss and the boy turned the device off and put it back into his pocket. He closed his eyes to think. Just then, he felt a whoosh of air and when he opened his eyes, sure enough, he was back in own bedroom!

"I'm home!" Max exclaimed happily. Well, that had been an exciting adventure.

The boy ran and looked at himself in the mirror.

"I'm my own age now!" he cried.

But that's not the end.

* * *

Few days had passed since the adventure and Max hadn't told anyone about the mysterious device he had found or what it could do. The boy was once again alone in his bedroom feeling rather bored.

 _Did that really happen a few days ago?_ he thought to himself. _It's too hard to believe. Was it all just a dream?_

There was just one way to find out.

After making sure that his bedroom door was closed, Max pulled out the device and turned it on. Once again, the animated figure of Professor Rowan appeared, along with a long explanation about the world of Pokémon. Pretty soon, the questions appeared.

'Are you a girl or a boy?' Max clicked 'boy'.

'What is your name?' Max stopped. He looked at the screen for a while, then with a secret smile, he typed down 'Conway'. That would be his code name, he decided.

'Are you ready to begin your journey?' Without hesitation, Max clicked 'yes'. He closed his eyes and felt a whoosh of air.

This time, though, he was not in a Pokémon centre. The older Max looked around. It looked quite like a tag battle arena, he recognized. And it looked like _he_ was part of it!

In his other hand was a card with the number nine on it. He pocketed his device and looked up just as an old man started to speak in the microphone. The man introduced himself as the Hearthome City mayor, leading to loud cheering from the audience.

 _Hearthome City. Where is that?_ Conway wondered. _Maybe the device could help me._

The boy pulled out the device once again. He clicked the 'x' button and then clicked the 'bag' icon. After scrolling past a list of items, he finally found the map, and he clicked it.

"I'm in the Sinnoh region!" Conway whispered. "And I'm part of a tag battle. Cool!"

He could finally battle! He put the device back into his pocket and looked up at the screen that was visible at the front on the arena. Number nine was paired with number twenty-eight. He had to find number twenty-eight. He walked about for a while until he saw who he was looking for.

 _Wait. Isn't that that Dawn girl who was with Ash a few days ago?_

He started walking towards her, passing Ash.

 _Ash saw me, alright._ he thought. _Shouldn't he be greeting me by now? Unless he forgot me already…_

He took out he Slowking and walked up to Dawn.

"Now how _are_ you, number twenty-eight?" he said, with a flash of his glasses.

She spun around. "I'm fi—" she stopped, looking slightly creeped out. She didn't seem to recognize him.

 _Maybe what happened a few days ago didn't really happen._

"Conway's the name!" he introduced more confidently than before. He slightly fiddled with his glasses.

* * *

He really wished that he could battle by himself. He stood there and did some calculations in his head. Finally, Conway decided that it would be best if he focused on the defence while she focused on the attacking. He told her his plan.

"And don't think much too, okay?" he added.

"Yeah right," she replied sarcastically.

All went well, and just as he predicted, he and Dawn won the first round.

 _That was fun._

After the battles were done for the day, Conway secretly followed Ash, Dawn and Brock to a little restaurant-like place. He got himself an orange fruit punch and sat on a table nearby. He wanted to join Ash with his journey again, but Ash didn't know him now, so he decided to just follow him and his friends and help out when he could. Nothing weird about that, right?

After giving Ash the suggestion of going to the Veilstone City gym, Conway finished his fruit punch and ducked behind a crowded table. Nobody seemed to pay attention to him so he pulled out his device again. This time, though, something told him to click the 'save' button before he turned it off. And so he did. And the boy found himself back in his own room.

"How'd you do that?" May suddenly asked.

"Huh?" Max quickly stuffed the device in his pocket and spun around. May was standing there on the other side of his bed and his bedroom door was open.

"One second you weren't there, then when I blinked, you're right here. How did you do that?" May asked.

"Uh," Max did some quick thinking. "You must be hallucinating, I'm not here right now. I-I mean—" he looked at May as she raised her eyebrow. "I was here all the time! You just didn't notice!" he said quickly.

"Okay then," said May, though it was clear that she didn't believe him. Then after casting one last suspicious glance at her brother, May headed out the room.

"That was a close one," Max whispered to himself with a relieved sigh.

The next day, the boy did the same with the device. This time, though, there was no long explanation or questions. He found himself at the exact same spot he had left off the last time he was Conway. The only difference,though, was the Ash, Brock and Dawn weren't there anymore.

 _Where should I head to?_ the boy thought to himself.

He went on the map on his device. An area on the map was circled in blue. Conway clicked it and suddenly felt a whoosh of air. Before he even knew it, he was standing in a vast field with many people around. In fact, he was standing right behind Ash, Brock and Dawn! The boy quickly ducked behind the nearest crown of people.

And alas, that's how it all went. Max—er— Conway often managed to track down Ash and friends whenever he got a chance. It made him feel like he was with Ash on his journey again, and it made him feel good that he was able to help out like that. Once again, Max could see Ash… Though as a different person.

* * *

 **And that's that! The secret is out. Now everybody know who Conway really is and why he looks so much like Max. I hope you enjoyed. Please review and have an amazing day!  
**


End file.
